MA, A Comic Book

MA Matt Huynh

All content Š Matt Huynh

MA 1. (Informal) Mother.

2. (Japanese) Interval.

3. (Sanskrit) Water.

4. (Vietnamese) Ghost.

Mimi Zou is a Chinese Australian lawyer and Commonwealth scholar at Oxford University, where she is Junior Dean at St John’s College, and edited the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal. Mimi is a consultant for the International Labor Organisation’s China and East Asia projects. She is also a visiting research fellow at the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research and at the Centre for International Governance and Justice.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

O

n 27 September 2013, 80 asylum seekers were on board an Australia-bound boat, which capsized and sank in the rough seas off the coast of Java, Indonesia. There were 31 confirmed deaths at the time of writing, many of them women and children, and at least 30 more people missing. Far from an unusual story, such human tragedies have become a regular phenomenon. Over the past decade, thousands of lives have been lost at sea en route to Australia. When first approached by reporters seeking information on the incident, the response of the newly elected Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was to ignore all questions. Several weeks prior, his Government pledged immediate action to ‘stop the boats’, including a new policy of turning back boats to Indonesia. In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, Abbott’s predecessor, Kevin Rudd, put forward Labor’s policy of denying any asylum seeker arriving by boat the chance of settling in Australia. A ‘race-to-the-bottom’ demonisation of asylum seekers has become deeply ingrained in the mainstream discourses of Australia’s politics and media.

Matt Huynh’s moving tale of his family’s journey to Australia as ‘boat people’ from Malaysia in the 1980s is a profound juxtaposition to the widespread political scaremongering over asylum seekers. This story is beautifully and vividly illustrated, with an eye for the humour and humanity of an otherwise fraught and difficult passage in their young lives. It is a unique glimpse into the Huynh family’s struggles and hopes, their courage and inspiration, their dreams for themselves and for their children, and the love that binds them together. It provides us with a timely and sober reflection on the responsibilities of our nation towards the protection of the human rights of those fleeing their homes due to persecution, risking their lives in desperate journeys in the hope of finding a safe haven for their families.

Mimi Zou Oxford 12 October 2013

Matt Huynh is a Vietnamese Australian artist based in New York City. His comics and illustrations are informed by sumi-e, shodo and comic books. His clients include the New York Times, Esquire, Men’s Health, Bloomberg Business Week and Adobe.

Creative Sydney Festival named him one of Sydney’s most innovative cultural contributors for his graphic novel work. His work appears in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection and his comics have been presented on the Sydney Opera House stage. www.matthuynh.com